N Madhavan

About

While India saw heated protests and a debate last week over Net Neutrality -- the call to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for strictly separating content (apps) and carriage (data plans), the European Union’s Competition Commissioner took a step forward in another side of the business by charging Google with defying what is called “search neutrality”.

It is a good idea for India’s software barons to make the right noises to be seen as truly global – even as India remains a competitive base for both quality and cost-effective information technology read more

Twitter is hit by abusers, trolls, gatecrashers and wannabes. It needs new tricks but remains humanity’s best-known single platform for politics and public affairs. It could do with cool new features -- and some way to keep out hate-mongers read more

Looking back at 2015, I should think the high points for me this year were meeting with the young entrepreneurs who are shaking up the way business is done in India. So I may like to call this the Year of the Unicorn. But don’t drink your New Year’s... read more

FreeBasics is to Facebook what Android is to Google. Both of them want advertising dollars buzzing in from smartphones. Google is betting on search. Facebook is betting on data analytics linked to user information. read more

Despite searching questions being raised on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to give away 99% of his $45 billion wealth to charity, there is ground to celebrate the culture of giving that it boosts. read more

Government servants are facing increasing public scrutiny – through everything from public interest litigation (PIL) and right to information (RTI) to supervision by parliamentary panels and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (not to speak... read more

As leaders from as many as 54 African countries descend on New Delhi this week for the India-Africa Forum Summit, it is time to recall an old Hindi film song that lingers on Indian minds: “Woh tere pyar ka gham\/Ik bahana tha sanam”. read more

Last week Yahoo, the original Internet portal, announced a search advertising deal with Google’s new parent, Alphabet Inc, building on an existing search partnership with Microsoft. It reported a fourth quarter revenue well below analyst estimates, raising... read more

India has emerged as the fastest growing startup hub worldwide, and is among the top five in the world with 4,200 startups estimated by end of 2015, up 40% over the previous year. As many as 80,000 jobs have been created in startups. As much as 72% of... read more

Was it not Mark Twain, who famously quipped: “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated”? I am reminded of that every time some pessimism surfaces on India’s information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) industry, which now... read more

In 1993 India passed a law that wanted demolition of all dry toilets. The law also banned manual scavenging. However, nearly 800,000 toilets in India were still cleaned manually, according to the 2011 census.We can now offer a 21st Century answer: r... read more

The Indian government last week hastily withdrew the draft of a proposed encryption law that would have made citizens keep records of their encrypted messages for 90 days. But there is every indication that the quick response to privacy-loving activists... read more

Last week marked the completion of a year since Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his ambitious “Make in India” initiative to boost manufacturing in India -- and by most accounts, its success so far is at best mixed. read more

The controversial taxi service, Uber, has been in the news for safety-related issues, but there is no doubt that it has revolutionised the business by bringing in \"ride sharing\" - the business of linking unused taxi capacity with passengers through a... read more

Putting two and two together, I can only say that the potential for growth is immense, but the app economy will likely grow in fits and starts. This is because unlike the IT services industry that saw the rise of giants such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro,... read more

Time and again I recall the garment industry to get a better perspective on India’s IT industry because there are tectonic shifts in the industry that makes some pessimists look askance at the future of the industry. read more

In this Era of Smartphone Confusion, with multiple brands, impressive features, competitive price-tags and innovative branding, what to keep in mind, N Madhavan explains through three simple laws. read more

Satya Nadella seems set for his next big purchase -- and Microsoft has about $95 billion in cash. That is about Rs 600,000 crore! Reports came at the weekend that the software giant pulled back from acquiring Salesforce.com, arguably the biggest small-business... read more

I sat at my computer on Saturday and felt my chair shaking. Within a minute, I was logged on to Twitter and sharing my experience, like dozens of others across India. Over the next few minutes, I had checked and shared a link from the Indian Met Department... read more

You could call it luck or a coincidence. Either way, the BJP-led NDA seems to have strange encounters with monsoon rains and oil prices — with the former giving it a tough time and the latter showering some blessings. Oil prices and the pattern of rainfalls... read more

While India saw heated protests and a debate last week over Net Neutrality -- the call to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for strictly separating content (apps) and carriage (data plans), the European Union’s Competition Commissioner... read more

Last week, IBM announced it would invest as much as $3 billion (Rs. 18,000 crore) over the next four years to set up a new Internet of Things (IoT) unit. Please remember that the giant is no longer a product company, although it makes some, and is essentially... read more

The spectrum scandal that shook Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s UPA government may be over, but the successful end of auctions to sell airwaves may have just triggered a fresh round of acrimony involving the telecom sector. read more

After a painful scandal that paralysed India\'s parliament for years, involved the Supreme Court and catapaulted a new prime minister into power, the spectrum saga reached a Bollywood-style happy ending last week when the NDA government announced it would... read more

E-commerce companies in league with mobile-money or online coupon companies are effectively “printing” some kind of new-age cash — because anything of value between two parties or entities can be made to look like cash. read more

The year 2016 may belong to e-money, with many of these fancy discount and recharge companies taking your cash and playing it with the way banks do. E-commerce players will become something like \"fast-moving technology trick\" companies to generate high... read more

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s budget for 2015-16 has allocated Rs 1,000 crore to help information technology startups. I am sceptical about the government as an investor in private companies, particularly in cutting-edge technology. read more

I think back on the heady days of 1998 and 1999, when India’s internet penetration was very low and yet there were mushrooming companies aiming to go public or get acquired like their counterparts journeying from the Silicon Valley to Wall Street. read more

The labour churn at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) signifies a new phase in the evolution of India\'s IT industry - and something that is of profund significance if India is not to mess up its showpiece sector, writes N Madhavan. read more

All indications are that the India Story is ready to regain momentum and the GDP growth rate may head towards doubling itself from the dismal 4.7% in 2013\/14 over the next few years. But will there be a Black Swan that comes in the way of the elusive... read more

I met Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella within a few weeks in India – which is symbolic of the nation’s importance for these gentlemen as India is poised for a boom in smartphones. read more

Hollywood, the glamorous film industry of the world’s biggest votary of free speech, the US, has withheld the release of \'The Interview\' after threats linked to North Korean hackers upset over the comedy built around the assassination of its leader,... read more

It is clear that India needs to be proactive about a new online global culture and evolve a new legal framework that guards free speech while ensuring security and responsibility, writes N Madhavan. read more

India’s IT sector faces new challenges. It is clear that quality skills are not easily available any more in India. It is time for Indian IT players to think Sri Lanka —and possibly, the beautiful eastern port city of Trincomalee, writes N Madhavan. read more

I saw on Sunday \'Rang Rasiya\' and that somehow that brought back memories of last week, when I was visiting software product firm Zoho in Chennai. Zoho is unlike any IT company I have seen in the past two decades or so, writes N Madhavan. read more

In a global economy where technological change is constant, re-skilling is critical. E-tutoring may be of help, but there is also a need for tax breaks to help individuals to evolve with the times. read more

It has more than 100,000 customers in over 100 countries and counts Microsoft as its leading competitor. It is possibly India\'s most untold software success story, perched at the cutting edge of cloud computing. read more

I have had a difficult six months in my adventures with electronic items. My five-year old LCD TV gave up and I spent about Rs 700 to be told after two visits that its repair would cost Rs 24,000. read more

Many of the start-up entrepreneurs at the Nasscom Product Conclave, may not know of the 1990s, when India’s IT industry was happy to supply cheap programming skills in exchange for precious dollars. read more

They chucked up cosy IT jobs at TCS and Wipro because they kind of missed homely food in Bangalore. And they are now ready to go global with their eatery chain, which has 60 branches spread across India. read more

In the biggest investment ever by an investor in any Indian e-commerce firm, Japanese group SoftBank has put in $627 million (Rs 3,847 crore) in Snapdeal, becoming the largest shareholder in the online marketplace. read more

The appointment of Sundar Pichai as head of products at Google is bigger news than it appears. True, there is no immediate move to groom the IIT, Kharagpur engineer as successor to current CEO Larry Page and his title still reads a bland \'senior vic... read more

It was nice to spend a few hours at Tiecon Delhi last week, in the congregation that helps startups happen in India. Tiecon (Tie Conference) has its roots in The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), a US-based network that played on the India-US (Ind-US) expression... read more

I often ask myself what is the larger significance of Narayana Murthy for India. It may be this: through the 1970s and 1980s, India’s general public had questioned successful corporate figures because they thrived on political connections and the Licence... read more

The social network that Zuckerberg, now 30, used to gather fame and fortune in a short time-frame was used by Modi to acquire power and prominence in a nation of one billion people in an equally short time. read more

Amazon.com, the world\'s largest online retailer, sees no hurdles to growth in India despite regulatory problems ranging from tax-based restrictions on selling in Karnataka to curbs on foreign direct investment (FDI) in e-commerce and retail, says its... read more

At the end of the last quarter, India had 71 million broadband subscribers, of which 55 million were using mobile devices. This in a nation of 919 million wireless mobile users. Clearly, data plans are only just taking off in India. read more

Apple\'s latest launch of the large-screen iPhone6, the Apple Watch and the Apple Money service as a mobile payment device fail the first definition -- but could well succeed on the second count. Here\'s how. read more

If you are willing to shed that I-hold-the-latest-gizmo-in-my-hands obsession and the imagined or real social status that goes with it, buying a product that has just slipped into the second spot may be a great thing. read more

I write this from San Francisco, after a realisation: the Internet first made travel easier and more convenient, but soon, travel apps may become, not “nice to have” or “great to have”, but “must haves” . read more

To prevent combat terrorism and money laundering, financial authorities worldwide implement KYC norms. I am beginning to see a case for a similar check on social media sites, writes N Madhavan. read more

Their demand is regressive – a bit like taxi drivers protesting against a cheaper metro service. The truth is that the government offered cheap spectrum to telcos and also limited the number of players in the early years. These have given them a hea... read more

Two seemingly unrelated events last month showed that a time may come soon, when smartphones and tablets maybe sold by the kilo. Well, almost. In business management jargon, they call it \'commoditisation\'. read more